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January/February 2007 EditorialCompliance: Following the Letter (and the Spirit) of the Law
Posted by Home Energy on January 02, 2007
Several unrelated matters related to compliance with energy efficiency regulations crossed my desk recently (see "Caveat Emptor," p. 12). These incidents illustrate that compliance—or failure to comply—with a regulation is not always objective. Indeed, one could say that there is a spectrum of "compliance."
First there is outright fraud. This was probably the case where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ordered an insulation company to desist from its claims. Insulation—especially the IR barrier foil type—seems to have had more than its share of fly-by-night firms, misrepresentation, and general sleaziness. I commend the FTC for continuing to pursue these cases and urge them to maintain vigilance, especially with higher oil and electricity prices prompting consumers to search for low-cost measures to cut costs for space heating. For the uninformed consumer, the simplest advice may be to work with nationally known brands and manufacturers.
That advice doesn't apply to other products, however. Take the case of air conditioners in Australia (which aren't much different from air conditioners in the United States). The Australian government discovered that the large Korean manufacturer LG had overstated the effi ciency and capacity of many of its air conditioners. One model did not even meet the minimum-efficiency standard. The Australian government forced LG to pay millions of dollars to air conditioner buyers to offset the higher operating costs. You can be sure that manufacturers noticed.
An insidious, new form of noncompliance has recently emerged. Thanks to microprocessor controls, some appliances now recognize when they are being tested and switch into a low-energy mode. According to Consumer Reports, this appears to be the case with a new LG refrigerator, which inexplicably switches off some operations when the ambient temperature approaches the testing temperature and when doors haven't been opened for a while. These measures cut enough electricity use to qualify the unit for Energy Star endorsement and sales-enhancing utility rebate programs. LG appears to be failing to comply with energy regulations in two countries. (Is anybody paying attention?) But LG is not alone; Japanese refrigerator manufacturers became so adept at circumventing the test that actual electricity use of refrigerators was typically twice as high as the labels claimed. The situation became so embarrassing that the government changed the test procedure to make it harder to circumvent. Many U.S. appliance manufacturers (and importers) are poised to adopt the same approach as LG and Japanese manufacturers. The FTC, DOE, and Energy Star should be on the alert.
A more subtle form of noncompliance occurs when manufacturers misrepresent the capacity of their products. Efficiency, which is described in terms of energy use per unit of capacity, is thus overstated. (I call this the denominator problem.) Refrigerators, washing machines, and water heaters suffer from exaggerated capacity claims. Consumer Reports again described how the usable volume of one refrigerator was 30% less than the listed volume. (It probably would not have complied with minimum efficiency standards if usable volume had been used.) Most energy regulations pay far more attention to the accuracy of energy measurement than to the capacity of the product.
Finally, there are cases where the energy-saving claims are partly true for example, under certain conditions. The motor controllers (see "The GreenPlug Dilemma," HE Sept/Oct '94, p. 2) did save electricity when motors were oversized or the voltage delivered was unnecessarily high. Here the problem is agreeing on appropriate test conditions. Reasonable people may disagree on these conditions, so compliance is less clear-cut.
These stories show that compliance is not a simple yes-no decision. It begins with clear regulations. But it must be followed by vigilance, intelligence, and, occasionally, Solomon-like decisions.
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The government is asking automakers to put stronger limits on drivers' interaction with in-car touch screens in an effort to curb distracted driving.
U.S. traffic safety regulators unveiled guidelines Tuesday that would restrict the amount of time it takes to perform both simple and complex functions on a car's entertainment and navigation systems.
Regulators also want to ban manual text entry and display of websites, social media, books and other text distractions while the car is moving.
"Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible. It can have devastating consequences," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who announced the guidelines along with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland.
LaHood and Strickland told reporters on a conference call that NHTSA has determined that over 3,000 people were killed in crashes that involved distracted driving in 2011 and more than 387,000 were hurt.
The guidelines are voluntary for automakers and will be phased in over three years.
Strickland said NHTSA has had success with voluntary guidelines and would consider giving automakers incentives to comply.
But Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a frequent NHTSA and auto industry critic, said the guidelines will do little to halt distracted driving.
"We've tried voluntary. Voluntary doesn't work," he said.
NHTSA based the new guidelines on a study it conducted on distracted driving. The results showed that tasks requiring drivers to look at touch screens or hand-held devices increase the risk of getting into a crash by three times. Texting, web browsing and dialing a phone were the tasks that kept drivers' eyes off the road the longest.
However, the study did not find an increased risk of a crash from just talking on a cellphone.
The new guidelines limit simple tasks to two seconds. They also restrict the time allowed for complex tasks to 12 seconds, but do not limit the number of times a driver can touch a screen. The decision on whether a screen would freeze or shut down after 12 seconds would be left to automakers based on their own research, NHTSA said.
The auto industry's current guidelines, which are a decade old, allow drivers to read text and perform other more complex tasks while cars are moving at less than 5 mph, Strickland said. Systems now are designed so multiple-step tasks take 10 or fewer screen touches for a total of 20 seconds with a driver's eyes off the road. But the devices won't turn off or stop a driver from doing something that takes longer than 20 seconds.
The new guidelines "will help us put an end to the dangerous practice of distracted driving by limiting the amount of time drivers take their eyes off the road," Strickland said.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a group representing 12 large car makers, is worried that drivers will simply turn their eyes to something else: their mobile devices.
Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the alliance, said a mobile device, with its smaller buttons and screens, "wasn't designed for use while driving a vehicle." She said guidelines for mobile devices should be proposed at the same time as those for in-car equipment, which is designed to be used while driving.
NHTSA said it will address mobile devices and voice-activation technology in the next phases of guidelines. But it encouraged mobile device makers to adopt recommendations from Tuesday's guidelines "that they believe are feasible and appropriate for their devices."
The guidelines cover any manufacturer-installed device that a driver can see or reach, but they do not affect video screens located behind the front seats.
Navigation maps that show movement as cars travel would still be allowed, as would the input of preset destinations, Strickland said. But a car would likely have to be stopped for a driver to manually type in an address.
NHTSA said more research is needed to decide if the guidelines should cover heavy trucks and buses.

subset: commoncrawl


text: We believe that the bug you reported is now fixed; the following changes were made to the overrides... Concerning package libmongoclient0... Operating on the unstable suite Changed section from devel to libs Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you have further comments please address them to 880745 at bugs.debian.org. This message was generated automatically; if you believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive administrators by mailing ftpmaster at ftp-master.debian.org. Debian distribution maintenance software pp. Luca Falavigna (the ftpmaster behind the curtain)


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|Virginia Cole
Girl to immediate left is Olive Williams.
Velma on the right is cut off.
The man and other woman are unknown.
|Wishing you a very Merry Deer Christmas
Gertrude & Evan Sholl
found among photos belonging to Helen Killeen Parker
|from album of Helen Killeen Parker
taken in Ocean View, Virginia
about 1919


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Semester 2011B Important Dates
You are here
Key dates and events in the proposal process are shown below. The Phase I and Phase II deadlines are highlighted.
|31 March 2011
|Proposal deadline
|Proposals received by National Gemini Offices (NGOs) - see partner pages.
|Set by partner
|NTAC meetings
|Scientific assessments by each Gemini partner ("National
|On or before 11 May 2011
|Electronic transmission of proposals to Gemini from NTACs.
|24-25 May 2011
|International Time Allocation Committee meets to resolve issues and recommend programs.
|8 June 2011
|Final queue/schedule, and ITAC & Gemini feedback to NGOs
|After approval by Gemini Director.
| 16 June 2011
|11B schedule and Phase IIs available
|2011B OT "skeletons" available.
|5 July 2011
|Phase II reviews start
|The response time is 7 days for checking by NGOs (from "For Review") and by Gemini CSs (from "For Activation").
|15 July 2011
|Phase II deadline
|PI deadline for submission of completed Phase II Programs to National Offices
(earlier submission is encouraged).
|29 July 2011
|"For Activation" deadline
NGO deadline for submission of completed Phase II Programs to Gemini.
|1 August 2011
|Start of semester 2011B
|2011B programs may be observed earlier to fill queue nights.


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From The Back Forty
From the Back Forty began as a weekly column in the Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe in the early 90s. Back then, it described a neo-ruralite's attempts at building and running a backwoods homestead in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It has since appeared in a variety of rural daily newspapers in Livingston (Montana) Enterprise, the Greenville (Ohio) Daily Advocate, and the Athens (Ohio) Messenger. The author, Gary Lamberg, is now a neo-blogger, with a day job at the Cheboygan Daily Tribune. If space permits a version of this blog may also appear in that newspaper.
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
I can't begin to answer that question, but I can tell you that our friendly neighborhood groundhog nearly "chucked" our garden this year.
On return from a couple of days camping in the U.P. we discovered a sizeable portion of the garden had been hit hard. The leftover stalks of broccoli looked like something from a science fiction movie. The snow peas that had been left in full bloom were reduced to little one-leaf wonders. A row of bush beans disappeared. And there was no trace of a beautiful row of spinach I planned to harvest as soon as we got home from camping.
I found tracks in the garden, but they didn't look like raccoons –regular masked garden raiders, I'm all too familiar with.
The garden had been wrecked in past years by deer, but the six-wire electric fence constructed to keep out Bambi had not been disturbed, making deer predation unlikely.
The plot thickened.
The following evening, I spotted a large rodent munching happily among the wasted pea plants. A woodchuck, caught in the act.
After many years of gardening in very rural areas, I had yet to be "chucked". Based on the quick work he made of the garden, I can see why they call these critters groundhogs because he certainly pigged out on my garden.
I tried live trapping the sucker over the next few days, enticing the chubby marauder with an assortment of delectable vegetables. No luck. He even turned his nose up to freshly-sliced kiwi. Turns out woodchucks are notoriously hard to live trap.
The next step was to borrow a small caliber rifle. Yeah, I know that sounds extreme, but this over-sized rat wasn't going to let us harvest anything if I didn't do something drastic.
Over the next several days I caught "woody" in the act a few times, but only managed one clear shot. I'm pretty sure I missed him. However, that was the last I've seen of the critter. He was probably scared out of his wits and thought discretion the better part of valor. After the apparent miss, you wouldn't believe something that looked so fat could move so fast.


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Sarkari Result
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Coastal Towers homes for sale in Boynton Beach FL
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Rooming with strangers a game of trust in Brooklyn
"Do we still have a TV?"
That's the text message I got from my husband as I walked up the steps to our Brooklyn apartment on a Friday afternoon this fall. I was fairly sure that we did. I opened the door. Cats, check. TV, check.
He needed to know because we'd just entrusted a stranger, by most senses of the word, with keys to our home and with it, access to everything we own. It was with the same implicit trust she'd placed in us when she asked to spend a couple of nights on our futon, sight unseen.
We did this through Couchsurfing.org, whose motto is helping you "meet and adventure with new friends around the world." No money changes hands. Maybe a drink or a meal out, or a promise of an open couch in return, should you find yourself in Barcelona, Budapest or Bali. Another service, Airbnb, lets people rent out their homes, rooms, tree houses or whatever other dwellings they choose.
These are just two of the online tools that help people who want to branch out beyond hotels, motels and hostels and explore peer-to-peer accommodations to stay in the homes of ordinary people.
Reasons to do this are as varied as the places where you'll rest your head if you sign up for them — to save money, to see places underserved by traditional lodging services, or simply to meet locals.
While neither is particularly new (the idea behind Couchsurfing dates back to 1999, while Airbnb launched in 2008), both are gaining traction beyond adventurous city folk and student travelers with the help of social media and old-fashioned word-of-mouth. To get started, simply visit their websites, browse the offerings and sign up for an account to make the arrangements.
Hosting can be a treat, too. Left without a real vacation budget this year, hosting Couchsurfers in our small one-bedroom apartment was a way to invite people from faraway places into our little corner of the world. If meeting interesting people is one of the best things about traveling, why not have the people come to you?
We had guests from Austria, Australia and more. Some did the dishes. A couple of women from Sweden, we barely saw, their presence indicated mostly by humungous suitcases and late-night entries. But they were sweet, in their early 20s and orbiting a different realm. One morning, I made pumpkin pancakes for one of them. One night, my husband and I went to sleep instead of going out with them to hear a DJ. I felt old.
One Couchsurfer hung out with us all weekend as we introduced her to such time-honored American traditions as brunch, a Bloody Mary and a Sunday evening dance party on the bank of one of New York's most polluted waterways, the Gowanus Canal. We walked around a stretch of Brooklyn we'd never seen before and happened upon a small cat colony in an abandoned building.
That was about two months ago. She was back on our futon over Thanksgiving, having traveled to other U.S. cities in the meantime. In the intervening weeks, we'd followed one another on the photo-sharing site Instagram. That's how it came to be that we had no qualms leaving her in our apartment alone while we visited family for Thanksgiving dinner.
Whether or not you let them stay when you're not home is obviously up to you. For us, it comes down to knowing enough about our guests by spending time with them. Your home is not a hotel, so people shouldn't expect that they will automatically be handed keys. The only thing you've promised is a roof.
As guests, we tried out Airbnb for a late-summer jaunt to upstate New York to try something more informal, cozier and hopefully cheaper than a Holiday Inn or Hilton. It worked out.
We stayed one night in a wonderful farmhouse of a couple whose kids have left for college ($85 per night for a large room and our own bathroom). Another night was in a cabin on an old family chicken farm ($125 per night for a cabin that sleeps four). A Holiday Inn in the same area runs $100 to $150 per night for two people, and you probably wouldn't share wine and travel stories with other guests in the lobby while a little old dog scurries around your feet.
Airbnb's commercial transaction removed a level of uncertainty from our trip, but it added a layer of formality and distance that didn't exist with Couchsurfing. Take the simple act of sharing a drink with your host or guest. One of our Airbnb hosts politely demurred, while our Couchsurfing guests were usually game for a beer or three. But just try inviting the hotel concierge up to your room for a glass of wine and see what happens.
Which site to go with depends on what you want out of an experience. Both, and others such as the long-running vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner), offer an alternative to traditional hotels and a chance to dive into life as a local. In San Francisco, where Airbnb is based, the company recently launched "local lounges," established coffee shops where Airbnb guests can stop in to get a welcome and a travel guide.
On Airbnb, the focus is on the accommodation. The best listings will have plenty of photos and reviews from other users. Couchsurfing profiles, meanwhile, read more like dating sites (though the rules bar using the site as such) or a place to find random new friends. You add photos and other users as friends. You can flesh out your profile to include musical tastes and life philosophy (my husband "would much rather try something stupid, dangerous or bad for me than risk feeling regret over missing out on something at the end of the line." I married the right man).
Since there are no commercial transactions on Couchsurfing, the site uses other ways to verify that people are who they say they are. Paying $25 will match the name you put on the site with the name you use with your bank. If you do that, you'll get the words "identity checked" next to your profile. Couchsurfing then mails a postcard with a special code to the address you provided. Once you enter the code on the website, you are "verified." We were more likely to accept verified guests, though it wasn't a requirement.
I also connected my Facebook account with my Airbnb and Couchsurfing profiles and checked out the Facebook pages of potential hosts and guests. We even used some interest-based filters to vet potential Couchsurfing guests. For example, having been to the annual Burning Man event in Nevada will likely get you in our door, while other hosts might automatically disqualify you for that.
The more you use the sites, the more friends and reviews you get from other users, which further serves to ensure trust. It's a bit like eBay, and how your cred improves the more transactions you do and do well.
The rest comes down to gut feelings. We made it clear to potential guests that we live in a small apartment and that they'd be sleeping on our fold-out futon in a living room with no doors, possibly with one or two cats on top of them. On weekends, we stroll around the city to explore new and old sights, scenes and tastes.
If that's not your cup of tea, the Hilton in Times Square might be a better bet. I won't forgo hotels now that I've tried out Couchsurfing and Airbnb, but it's good to know the options are out there. It certainly makes travel — and staying home— more interesting.
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Planning commission OKs several requests
A request for a bakery/deli use to be allowed at a property in Koehler Township was among the items that were reviewed by the Cheboygan County Planning Commission on Wednesday.
The panel approved a site plan review amendment to allow a bakery/deli on property located at 4502 Onaway Road in Koehler Township. The land is zoned for Commercial Development. A prior use involving plant/flower sales will be retained as well.
A separate site plan review request for a site condominium for private storage building use only was approved with the conditions that legal counsel review the master deed and requiring land division approval by the township.
An ordinance amendment to provide minimum fenced land area standards for the keeping of animals in the Rural Character/Country Living zoning district was also recommended for approval. It will now go before the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners.
The Planning Commission also underwent a training session from legal counsel on reviewing standards for application approval.
A request to allow a sewage treatment plant in Tuscarora Township that would be part of a new sewer system for Indian River was tabled for the fourth time after a request from the township, who asked that it be moved to the May 15 meeting. An e-mail sent from the township to the county back in April said its engineering firm was still waiting to hear from the Department of Environmental Quality on a variance for the isolation zone and details were still being worked out with property owners to provide water service in the event that the variance is not granted.
The plant is be located on Brudy Road in Tuscarora Township, near the township's industrial park. The proposed property is zoned as a Light Industrial Development District, in which this use is allowed by special use permit.
Plans for the plant include a building for filtering operations, three or four open lagoons and one permanent employee. The site will be fenced in, and an area has been reserved for potential expansion if need be in the future. Additional setbacks and requirements will be required by the District No. 4 Health Department and the Michigan DEQ.
The project is part of Tuscarora Township's plans to install a more than $4 million sewer system. The project is to be funded with a USDA/Rural Development $2.6 million loan and a $1.5 million grant. However, the loan will be paid through a special assessment district, so residents and businesses that fall within its boundaries will be required to pay, which has been the subject of some controversy.


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Today's News: Our Take - Kristin Chenoweth Confirms She's Dating Jake Pavelka
It's official! Broadway darling Kristin Chenoweth is dating former Bachelor star Jake Pavelka.
"We have been spending a little time together," Chenoweth told People.
Gallery: Hey ladies, put away your cleavage!
Though Chenoweth, 44, admits her busy schedule leaves little room for dates, she has found some time for her new beau since meeting Pavelka, 34, in October. The couple were spotted sharing lunch in West Hollywood in early November, in addition to a more recent café visit near Pavelka's Texas home.
Chenoweth's drive to make time for Pavelka might be due to her on-set accident while filming The Good Wife in July. The actress told People that the injury "slowed me down and I've realized life is short. I want to do things that make me happy."
View original Kristin Chenoweth Confirms She's Dating Jake Pavelka at TVGuide.com
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October 27th, 2012
The making of Mitt Romney: A look at his faith journey
By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story ran last year, as part of a series about the faith lives of the leading Republican presidential candidates. With the exception of an August interview done by CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger for her documentary "Romney Revealed: Family, Faith and the Road to Power," which airs Sunday, October 28, and Saturday, November 3, at 8 p.m. ET on CNN, all other interviews were conducted in the fall of 2011. CNN has also profiled President Obama's faith life during his time in the White House.
(CNN) – A cop arrived at the roadside wreckage of a June 1968 head-on collision in southern France, took one quick look at the Citroën's unresponsive driver and scrawled into the young man's American passport, "Il est mort" - "He is dead."
The man at the Citroën's wheel was Mitt Romney, who may have appeared dead but was very much alive – as is his hope to become the next president of the United States.
Romney was serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the LDS Church, when tragedy struck. It was a time of turmoil both in France and in the United States. Protests against the Vietnam War raged on, as did French disdain for Americans. Robert Kennedy had recently been assassinated, as had Martin Luther King Jr. a couple months earlier. France was still reeling from a May marked by riots, student demonstrations and crippling worker strikes.
There were six people in the car Romney was driving when friends say an oncoming speeding Mercedes, driven by a Catholic priest, veered into his lane. Among the passengers was mission president Duane Anderson – Romney was serving as his assistant – and Anderson's wife. Anderson was injured, and Leola Anderson, 57, was killed. Like her husband, she'd been a parent figure to the approximate 180 Mormon missionaries in the field - their surrogate mother away from home. Now, she was gone.
"I don't think [Romney] went around blaming himself, but in talking about it he'd shed some tears," remembered Dane McBride, a fellow missionary and Romney friend ever since. "It was a very heavy experience for a 21-year-old."
The mission president left France for six weeks to bury his wife and heal. A gloom spread over the mission field. Conversions in the country dropped, along with Latter-day Saint spirits.
These young men and women, who were already deep in a trying spiritual rite of passage, had to grow up and prove themselves in new ways.
In spite of his grief and a broken arm, Romney and a missionary companion – they always work in pairs – took charge. They traveled around the country visiting the others. Romney lifted up deflated missionaries with silly made-up songs. He taught them to visualize all they could accomplish and challenged them to raise their expectations, McBride said.
Romney increased the conversion goal for the year by 40%, believing France's Mormon missionaries could and would recharge. In the end they surpassed Romney's goal of baptizing 200 new members into the church.
It wasn't such a stretch, though, for Romney to distinguish himself. Throughout his life, he's been rooted in a faith that – whether he talks about it or not – helped shape the man who would president.
'An American running for president'
Romney hopes the nation is ready to embrace a president who happens to be Mormon.
But he has faced questions about his faith since first getting into politics in 1994, when he ran for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts against Democratic stalwart Ted Kennedy. When Kennedy's nephew, Joe, attacked Romney's Mormonism, the insult drew a strong public response from Romney's father – a former governor of Michigan who'd himself run for president - and failed to gain traction.
Since then Romney, who was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2003, has played down his faith on the campaign trail. But he did address it in a December 2007 speech, hoping to stem voter concerns about his religion and how it might influence him as a president. It was a speech he likened to John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 address, when Kennedy was running to be America's first Catholic president.
"Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for president, not a Catholic running for president," Romney said. "Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith."
"No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith," Romney said, declaring that if he was elected president, he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest."
"A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States," he said. "I believe in my Mormon faith, and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs. Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it."
Whether Romney's confession of faith helped sink him is a subject of debate. He hoped to deflect the focus on his religion while not speaking to Mormon doctrine or specific beliefs. In the whole speech, he mentioned the word Mormon only once.
This time around, Romney decided to forego a speech on his faith, but that doesn't mean he was immune to pesky background noise about it. After introducing Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a Values Voter Summit last fall, Pastor Robert Jeffress said Republicans shouldn't vote for Romney because Mormonism is a "cult."
And only after a sit-down meeting earlier this month with the Rev. Billy Graham and his son Franklin Graham, did the cult reference to Mormonism get scrubbed from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's website.
It's hard to know how much Romney's faith matters to the public, but recent polls suggest that at least to the majority of voters, it makes little or no difference.
A survey released in late July by the Pew Research Center showed that 60% of voters knew that he was Mormon, and of those who knew 8-out-of-10 were either comfortable with his faith or didn't really care.
Another survey by Pew showed that only 16% of voters wished they knew more about Romney's religious beliefs. Far more hungered for further details about his tax returns and his records as governor and at Bain Capital.
But in a tight election, if even a small minority of Americans withhold their votes from Romney because of his religion, it could cost him the White House.
For months, Romney's campaign made it clear that it didn't want to discuss his beliefs. Repeated attempts last fall to speak with the candidate, his wife, his children, his siblings - and, really, just anyone – about Romney's faith journey were denied by campaign headquarters.
Even the reins it had on those outside the inner circle appeared tight. A local LDS Church leader in Michigan, contacted in hopes of finding childhood friends, forwarded CNN's inquiry to campaign headquarters - prompting yet another slap down.
"What makes no sense to me is how you continue to push forward in writing about Gov. Romney's faith journey when we've made it clear in every way possible that this is not a story we want to participate in," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul wrote in an email.
But Romney has been somewhat more open about his religion since then. He and his wife, Ann, sat down separately with CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger for her documentary, "Romney Revealed: Family, Faith and the Road to Power," which first aired just before the Republican National Convention.
In the documentary, Romney shared how his mission in France fortified his faith and how church leadership roles in Boston would later strengthen his beliefs further.
He invited reporters to attend church with him in August, allowing the unremarkable typical Sunday service to speak for itself. People who've known him through the LDS Church took center stage at the convention, speaking to his character.
But Romney generally moved through the campaign guarding details about his Mormonism. He spoke about religion in broad strokes. He continued to avoid details and doctrine.
Explain it to me: Mormonism | Video: Mormonism defined
During a May commencement address at Liberty University, the Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, he didn't utter the M-word. Under the watchful eyes of millions as he accepted the Republican nomination for president in August, he said it once.
Growing up while abroad
The 19-year-old Mitt Romney who showed up for missionary training was different than the rest.
"Mitt stood out from everyone else," said Byron Hansen, who flew with Romney to France in July 1966. "He already spoke French pretty darn good, while the rest of us knew 'bonjour' and 'au revoir.' He immediately jumped out as a leader."
Romney, like many of the other young men called by church leaders to serve, had finished a year of college before he got his missionary calling. But he'd gone to prestigious Stanford University and came from a privileged and powerful background.
He was worldly, not intimidated, and he was eager to interact with people of different backgrounds, said Hansen, who owns a car dealership in Brigham City, Utah. "All the rest of us from no-name Utah had never been more than 500 miles away from home."
Despite the comforts he'd known growing up, Romney wasn't spoiled. Some apartments that housed missionaries around France lacked heat and water, but had plenty of fleas. Those sorts of conditions likely made Romney appreciate all the more the luxuries of the mission home, located in the ritziest part of Paris, where he worked and lived during the latter part of his two-and-a-half year mission. He and the others there were fed by a Spanish cook and enjoyed the benefits of maids.
What's more, said fellow missionary and friend Dane McBride, the young men learned what time of day to peer through windows to watch Brigitte Bardot walk her poodles.
The scenery aside, "it was the nicest office I ever worked in," said McBride, now an allergist and immunologist in Roanoke, Virginia.
Throughout his mission, Romney was the first to get out of bed each morning, forever focused on his goals and the lessons he'd teach, and he stayed gung-ho even when others faltered, Hansen said.
Romney didn't shy away from approaching anyone. On Saturdays, a free day for missionaries, he'd be done with his laundry by 9 a.m. and coaxing everyone else out the door for bike rides in the mountains, tours in new places or football games.
"He was never one to sit around," Hansen said. "You had to run to keep up with Mitt."
He was both pragmatic and creative when it came to sharing Mormon teachings, McBride said.
"Neither of us cared for knocking on doors much," said McBride, referring to the typical tact for Mormon proselytizing. "But we did it. We did it a lot."
However, Romney was a big proponent of what McBride called "creative contacting." In lieu of going door-to-door, he preferred to encourage conversations by building sidewalk kiosks or inviting French locals to play baseball or attend evening parties with American themes – complete with Western wear and guitar strumming.
Being a missionary in largely secular France deepened Romney's faith because it forced him to wrestle with challenges, steep himself in study and prayer and face plenty of rejection, McBride said. Like others, Romney was no stranger to doors being slammed in his face or getting his behind kicked while heading down apartment stairwells.
"When you're off in a foreign place and you only talk to your parents once or twice a year by phone – that's all that's allowed – and you're out speaking to people day in and day out about your faith and your religion and differences between your faith and other faiths…you say, 'OK, what's important here? What do I believe? What's truth? Is there a God? Is Jesus Christ the son of God?'" Romney said to Borger in August.
"These questions are no longer academic. They're critical because you're talking about that day in and day out. And so I read the Scripture with much more interest and concern and sought to draw closer to God through my own prayer," he said. "And these things drew me closer to the eternal and convinced me that in fact there is a God. Jesus Christ is the son of God and my savior, and these are things that continue to be important in my life, of course."
Religious roots that run deep and strong
The groundwork for Romney's faith journey was laid long before he put on a suit and, armed with his Book of Mormon, boarded a flight for France.
He comes from a long line of Latter-day Saints. Those who like to highlight what makes him different might point to how one of his great-grandfathers fled to Mexico, about 125 years ago, amid U.S. government crackdowns on what Mormons refer to as "plural marriage." But many multigenerational Mormon families have polygamists in their family tree.
Plural marriage was introduced by church founder Joseph Smith but was officially banned by the church in 1890. Some 38,000 people aligned with fundamentalist offshoots of the LDS Church still practice polygamy, but they are a far cry and completely separate from the 14 million worldwide members in Romney's church.
Romney's late father, George Romney, was from modest means. He was born in Mexico to monogamous U.S.-born parents and left during the Mexican Revolution when he was 5. He went on to be CEO and chairman of the now-defunct American Motors Corporation, governor of Michigan and a presidential candidate in 1968.
Growing up Mormon in Michigan made Mitt Romney a member of a distinct minority. There were fewer than 8,000 Mormons in the state in 1945, two years before he was born, according to the LDS Church. It's been reported that he was the only Mormon in his high school. While Mormon students in Utah could simply stroll across the street from school to attend early morning seminary before the first bell, longtime friend McBride said Romney didn't have that easy, built-in outlet to strengthen his faith amid peers.
"Neither of us had benefited from that," said McBride, who also grew up as a Mormon minority, in Iowa and North Carolina. "We had been called on in school to defend our faith many times. … I remember from fifth grade on needing to defend my religion."
But Romney, in his Republican nomination acceptance speech, shared a different take on growing up in the Mormon minority: "That might have seemed unusual or out of place, but I really don't remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to."
Romney's family, though, was active in the church. In 1952, his father was named Michigan's first stake president. A stake is comparable to a diocese and has under its umbrella multiple "wards" or congregations, much as a diocese consists of parishes.
The LDS Church does not rely on professional clergy. Instead, church members are called to serve as volunteer leaders while holding down paid jobs. Church leaders rely on other volunteers as advisers. For instance, a ward bishop has two counselors, while a stake president confers with a high council of 12.
Being Michigan's sole stake president meant Romney's father – in addition to his full-time corporate work – oversaw ward operations, was the spiritual guide for the Latter-day Saint community and relayed messages from church headquarters in Salt Lake City.
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Like many practicing Mormons, the Romneys enjoyed "family home evening" every Monday, a time reserved to pray, study and sing together, McBride said.
Romney has spoken publicly about how his parents took him and his three siblings on mobile American history lessons, McBride said, loading up the family Rambler for cross-country tours to national parks, with stops at places like Mount Rushmore, Valley Forge and Williamsburg.
But McBride said the family also likely visited LDS historical sites, including points along the path westward traveled by Mormon pioneers who followed the call of Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, and trekked through treacherous conditions to arrive in 1847 in what is now Utah.
While Romney's parents made sure their children were deeply connected to their country and their faith, Romney didn't reside in a Mormon bubble. He was part of a bigger and more diverse world.
Ann Davies, the woman he fell for and now calls his wife, was Episcopalian when he met her during high school, and he knew she was the one for him.
After he left for college and then his mission, she began studying Mormonism, attended church with Romney's parents and converted. Romney returned from France and proposed to her immediately. After a civil ceremony in Michigan, the two were married and "sealed" for eternity in 1969 during a sacred ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple.
The couple returned to college and began a family at church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, before moving to Boston, where Romney earned law and business degrees at Harvard.
Serving his LDS community
Romney rose in local church leadership while making his corporate mark. Along the way he applied many of the skills he'd displayed earlier, including his knack as a young missionary for turning challenges into possibilities.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, he served as a ward bishop – or part-time pastor – and stake president for the Boston area.
Romney delivered sermons, counseled couples, and made middle-of-the-night hospital runs. He monitored budgets, weighed welfare needs of immigrants and others, and drove outreach to different faith communities. He showed up at the homes of Latter-day Saints in need of help, taking on tasks such as removing bees' nests.
"There's… no one who is full-time with the church to care for the sick and visit the poor," Romney told Borger. "And so the church comes and says, 'We'd like you to do that, Mitt.' … Talk about a growing-up experience and a learning experience."
Philip Barlow, a professor of Mormon history and culture and the director of the religious studies program at Utah State University, served as a one of two counselors to Bishop Romney in the early 1980s.
Each Saturday, the counselors would meet with Romney in his home in Belmont, a suburb northwest of Boston. And while the work was serious, it didn't mean Romney always was. Barlow recalled the time Romney busted out with a rendition of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and did a formidable moonwalk across the floor.
"The media is always reporting that he can come across as too polished," Barlow said. "But there's a real person there."
Romney also was the kind of leader who built bridges with those suspicious of Mormons. When a chapel under construction in Belmont burned to the ground amid ongoing anti-Mormon sentiment, he turned the perceived arson attack into opportunity.
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"It was an inspired move," said Grant Bennett, who at one time served as a counselor to Romney when he was a bishop and later served on the Boston stake's high council under Romney when he was president.
Non-Mormon houses of worship offered their buildings to accommodate the needs of the displaced Latter-day Saints during the chapel's reconstruction. While it would have been easier to pick one place to call a temporary home for services, classes and meetings, Romney accepted every viable offer he received – thereby forcing a rotation of interaction with different faith communities.
Experiencing the kindness of strangers offered relief to Mormons who had been feeling "a little under siege," said Bennett, who first got to know Romney through church in 1978 and worked with him for five years at Bain & Company, the global consulting firm that Romney eventually led as CEO.
"In a religious context, Mormons are very good at serving each other and are often hesitant to accept help," he said. "I think Mitt had the fundamental insight … that we'd be better off and [the other churches would] be blessed by helping us."
It was the sort of decision perhaps born of being in the minority in Michigan and learning early to honor religious pluralism, said Bennett, now president and CEO of CPS Technologies, a high-tech manufacturing firm in the Boston area.
In his religious roles, Romney had to delegate and call others to serve. Sometimes he believed in people more than they believed in themselves.
Andy Anderson, a retired researcher and writer in Kaysville, Utah, first got to know Romney amid tragedy. It was Anderson's mother who was killed in the 1968 car wreck in France, and when his father returned to Paris, Anderson, his wife and children went along.
When Romney later moved to Anderson's neighborhood in Massachusetts, Anderson said he helped Romney and his family settle in.
In 1989, Anderson said he was minding his own research business when Romney, then the Boston stake president, called him for a meeting. A group of new converts Anderson described as "Cambodian boat people" – united formally as a "branch," which is smaller and less developed than a ward - had suddenly lost its president without warning.
In shock, he listened as Romney said, "Guess who's the next branch president?"
Anderson said he'd been raised to accept church callings. But between the language barrier with the Cambodians, the cultural differences, the poverty and the responsibility, this one seemed too much. He begged and pleaded with Romney. He told him he was unqualified, that he'd "never been president of anything." He said, "It sounds like a really bad fit, Mitt." But Romney wasn't swayed.
"Andy, you know where this comes from," Romney answered, referring to the Mormon belief that God can reveal truths to individuals. "It's not me. You go talk to Him and tell me when you're ready."
For the next three years Anderson said he oversaw the poorest people in the Boston stake. The overwhelming task "nearly killed me," he said. But along the way he not only fell in love with the community, he learned to believe in himself and see that he could be a leader.
"I count Mitt as a friend, and it has been a real pleasure to work under him," he said. "If he was a real pain to work for, I'd know it. I've worked for people in the church I couldn't stand."
Women's view of Romney
The Romney reviews from Latter-day Saint women in the Boston area were more mixed.
In the early 1970s, as the feminist movement gained steam, a group of Mormon women began gathering in Cambridge to explore the history of women in their church. They were looking for role models, stories that would inspire them.
With the help of LDS Church historians, they learned about their female ancestors and wrote a book, "Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah." They discovered that a women's newspaper, Women's Exponent, was published in the late-19th and early-20th centuries and featured women's writings that Judy Dushku described as "very feminist in their views."
"We were reading about women we'd never heard of before," said Dushku, a Suffolk University professor of government with an interest in gender and comparative politics. She and other "founding mothers" were moved to start a new publication, now a quarterly magazine: Exponent II.
That decision, however, was not received well by the LDS Church, Dushku said. She said the fact that it was independent and had no stamp of approval from church higher-ups, all of them men, rubbed some - including Romney - the wrong way.
Dushku said Romney encouraged friends to tell their wives not to participate. He made it clear he didn't want the women behind the publication holding meetings on church property. Dushku and the others suspected it was under his direction that copies of the magazine displayed in congregations got dumped in wastebaskets.
The LDS Church is patriarchal in nature. Only men can serve as bishops, stake presidents and in higher leadership roles, including the combined post of church president and prophet. Only men are welcome in the priesthood, which in Mormon circles means having the authority, for example, to perform baptisms and offer sacramental blessings.
Dushku decided she could live with this and remains a faithful Mormon. She said she and the others simply wanted an outlet for women to discuss issues unique to them. And while what they created may have seemed "radical" back then, she says there are Mormon women bloggers today who push boundaries much more than Exponent II ever did.
What got to Dushku about Romney was less his reaction to the magazine and more how she saw him treat women he was in a position to comfort and support as a local church leader.
Dushku has told the story of a woman, a mother of four, who was pressured by then-Bishop Romney to go forward with a pregnancy despite advice from doctors that a medical complication made it too dangerous.
She also recalled the story of a meeting between Romney and a woman whose ex-husband had been excommunicated from the church because of numerous affairs he'd had while serving as a bishop.
The woman asked Dushku to accompany her to the meeting, where Romney encouraged the woman to forgive her philandering ex so he could be re-baptized into the church and marry another woman.
The problem, Dushku said, is that the husband had never bothered to apologize to the wife he'd hurt, a fact she said Romney didn't seem to care much about.
When she began speaking out to media, Dushku said she was flooded with responses from Facebook friends. Most of the reactions were positive, thanking her for her courage.
But some friends suggested she back off.
"How can you blame someone who has so many responsibilities?" one friend wrote. "He was young," said another. "People change."
Dushku said she affords Romney the possibility he may have changed, that he might handle such situations differently today.
"But compassion is a character quality," she said. "I doubt he's much different now."
Her take on Romney, though, doesn't jibe with that of Helen Claire Sievers, executive director of Harvard's WorldTeach program, which brings volunteer teachers to developing countries.
Sievers, who's been involved with Exponent II on and off since its inception, was the Boston stake activity director when Romney was stake president. She recalled being at a meeting in Dushku's house in Watertown, outside of Boston, when women began wondering aloud about how their local church might better empower women.
"Often leadership in the Mormon church tends to pull far to the right, to out-orthodox the orthodox," said Sievers, who later proposed to Romney that he should meet with the Boston LDS women to hear their frustrations and suggestions. Romney was willing to have such a meeting, even though it bucked the comfort level of church headquarters.
"I was really impressed that Mitt felt strongly that even if he could get in trouble with the hierarchy, he really wanted to hear what the women that were under his stewardship had to say so that they would feel as comfortable as possible in church," Sievers said.
As a result of the meeting, which drew more than 150 participants, Sievers said adjustments were made, including allowing women to say opening prayers at church meetings. Romney didn't have the power to change church doctrine, but Sievers said he could and did bend the norm to make women feel heard and more respected.
"Many Mormon men wouldn't make that choice," she said.
Serving outside the stake and ward
In his fulltime work life, Romney showed that his commitment to serving others extended beyond those in his ward or stake. His religious values came through in business decisions – sometimes trumping opportunities for financial gain.
Robert Gay, who was once a managing partner at Bain Capital, the venture capital firm Romney founded, recalled how Romney refused to put investment dollars into a deal with Artisan Entertainment because he didn't want to profit from R-rated films.
But of greater note to Gay - who once served on the Boston stake's high council with Romney - was something Romney did for him in 1996.
After Gay's 14-year-old daughter went missing for three days in New York, Romney shut down Bain Capital in Boston and flew about 50 employees to New York to help find her.
The girl, who lived with her family in Connecticut, disappeared after going to a concert in Manhattan. Romney and the other Bain Capital executives put their "$1 billion investment firm" on hold, created a "war room" at a hotel, paid to print 200,000 fliers, set up a toll free hotline number and enlisted the help of a private investigator, the Boston Globe reported at the time.
They canvassed streets and talked to runaways. The girl was found in a New Jersey home, "dazed from a disorienting dose of a drug," the Globe reported.
It's not a story Gay likes to retell, though he did record a video testimonial for a campaign ad about it during Romney's 2008 presidential bid and the story resurfaced in ads this election season, too. But Gay would rather offer other insights, including the time another Bain Capital partner suddenly fell very ill and was hospitalized. Romney was the first person to show up for a visit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Gay managed an equity fund with Jon Huntsman Sr., father of another former GOP Mormon presidential, but is now serving the LDS Church. Gay called Romney "a devout Christian," someone who has always been committed to "leading a good and purposeful life."
Whether Romney's next purpose will have him sitting in America's highest political office is now up to voters.
And when they cast their ballots on November 6, friends like McBride said where Romney prays on Sundays should make no difference.
"The issues of his church are not the issues of this country," he said. "Those are personal issues."
soundoff (1,152 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.


text:
NEW YORK — After weeks of conflicting signals about the strength of the economy, a big gain in the jobs market gave Wall Street reason to celebrate Friday.
The stock market surged, traders donned party hats, and the wave of buying drove three indexes through major milestones.
"There's euphoria today," said Stephen Carl, the head equity trader at The Williams Capital Group. "That's what you'd have to call it."
The Dow Jones industrial average punched through another milestone, 15,000, before easing back. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed above 1,600 for the first time.
The Dow rose 142.38 points to close at 14,973.96, up 1 percent. The S&P 500 index surged 16.83 points, or 1 percent, to 1,614.42.
A surprisingly strong job report set it all off. U.S. employers added 165,000 new workers in April and many more in February and March than previously estimated. The unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in four years, 7.5 percent.
The surge in U.S. hiring comes after weeks of conflicting signals about the strength of the global economy. The unexpectedly strong numbers jolted markets higher from the start of trading.
On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, brokers sported baseball caps emblazoned with "Dow 15,000."
The gains were broad. Eight of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose. Nearly three stocks rose for every one that fell on the NYSE.
Companies that stand to benefit most from an upturn in the economy led the stock market up. Those that make basic materials and produce oil and gas rose the most in the S&P 500 index. U.S. Steel, General Electric and Dow Chemical were among the winners. Utilities, consumer-staple companies and other safe-play stocks trailed the market as investors took on more risk.
Small-company stocks are more risky than bigger companies but can also offer investors greater returns. On Friday, they outpaced the broader market. The Russell 2000 jumped 14.57 points, or 1.6 percent, to 954.42, a new all-time high.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 38.01 points to 3,378.63, an increase of 1.1 percent.
"We're breaking through psychological barriers and that will continue to bring investors off the sidelines," said Darrell Cronk, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. He called the jobs news "wonderful."
For more than a month, investors have had to wrestle with worrying reports on the world economy. First came news of falling retail sales in March, then a series of weak manufacturing reports and signs of an economic slowdown in China.
The first-quarter earnings season has been mixed, too. Though earnings have been higher than expected, many companies have reported little or no revenue growth, which has spooked investors.
Investors have also been concerned that higher Social Security payroll taxes and sweeping government spending cuts that took effect earlier this year will slow U.S. economic growth, and pinch corporate profits.
Friday's jobs numbers suggested the private sector might be strong enough to overcome those various obstacles.
In its report, the government revised its previous estimate of job gains up to 332,000 in February and 138,000 in March. The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April — above the 138,000 added in the previous six months.
"Jobs are key," said Randall Warren, chief investment officer of Warren Financial Service in Exton, Penn. "Everyone is worried about things like fiscal policy, the government spending money it doesn't have. If you want to turn that situation around, you have to get people off their couches."
Stock overseas rose on U.S. jobs report, too. The main indexes in France, Germany, Spain and Brazil rose 1 percent or better.
The S&P 500 is up 13 percent from the start of the year. The Dow is up 14 percent.
Many investors struck a skeptical note. Tim Biggam, chief market strategist at the brokerage TradingBlock in Chicago, said he thought the market was being driven higher by people hoping that the Federal Reserve's efforts to help the economy will keep working. Biggam said they're ignoring troublesome trends.
Slower sales mean companies have turned to more cost cutting to push their profits up. And other economic reports, including two out Friday, have pointed to a slowdown. Factory orders sank in March and gauge of growth in the service sector fell short of estimates.
"This may be the time you want to avoid getting in the market in my opinion, rather than jump in," Biggam said.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note jumped from its lowest level of the year, as traders moved money out of the safety of government bonds. The yield rose to 1.74 percent from 1.63 percent late Thursday.
Among other stocks making big moves on Friday:
— Gilead Sciences jumped $2.97 to $55.15, a gain of 6 percent, one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 index. The maker of HIV drugs reported a 63 percent surge in income in the first quarter thanks to lower costs and increased sales.
— Kraft Foods rose $2.58 to $53.11, an increase of 5 percent. The food maker reported first-quarter income and revenue that beat the forecasts of Wall Street analysts as it increased sales and cut costs following its split from its global snack business.
— LinkedIn, the professional networking social media site, sank 13 percent, losing $26.08, to $175.59. The company issued a revenue forecast for the rest of the year that was well below what financial analysts were expecting. LinkedIn went public in May 2011 at $45 a share.


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Can someone please translate the following comment from @Kishore Khanna who i assume is from India as is a hinddoou name. I think this sounds like sanskrit language. Thanks.
INDIA's NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM:
Aum aum aum...
Hare krishna hare ram....
Dum maro dum ....
Shiva ki gaand maro....
Hanuman ki bund maro...
Ram kay moo mein khotay kaa lund dalo...
Kaali ma ki chute maro...
Durga Maa ki kus pharo
Lakshmi Maa ki phudee mein lund dalo
Hindustan ki toeee mein jeera haldi thoso
Banyaa kutaa hai hai
Bharat murdabad
Hello? Anyone there? Seems like plenty of oriental dudes hanging around here!
A friend of mine from Kathmandu, Nepal is working on this translation. I will post it soon.
Eat sh it troll and fukk your mother asss..hole
Fu kk u troll bich. Eat my sh itt
Igor eats modi sh it..
Up yours
I guess that there's no way CNN is going to shut this idiot above up! Maybe CNN itself should be censored for tolerating such filth on this website!!!!
Tolerating? It's the job of major media to CAUSE confusion, Of course CNN doesn't care if idiots post stupid jokes here, sheesh
L O L you're confused Philip.
11:51. Fu kk u..
FOX says this and CNN says that. CBS says the other and MSNBC says what, They leave it up to the average American (who isn't all that bright) to decide which official version of news to believe, Meanwhile their weather and sports reports are all virtually identicle,
Yer kinda dumb, aren't you. Are you really that stupid to wonder why the weather reports and sports reports would all be the same?
Can someone please translate this poem? Thanks.
Ubbay hindu baniya ki aulad . Puthar kay pujari. Hindu Tutti saaf karne wali nussal. Jao peshab p eeo aur Sikh ki gand chat. Khane ko roti naheen aur batain chodta hai. Hindu gando.... Gadhay ki bund. Hindu kutta hai hai
Sure. Glad to be of assistance.
"You hindoo, descendants of buniyas (shylocks).
Stone worshippers.
Hindoos ... Generation of s hit cleaners.
Go, drink urine and lick the a zz of Sikhs.
Hindoos, you don't have food to eat but keep on talking s hit.
Hindoo f agotts. Donkey's a zz.
Down with hindoo dogs."
BTW this is Tchaikovsky's 2nd Sonata 10th line of the Concerto.
Stfu .bich. Eat mulla s hit.
Sure. It means "this language doesn't exist and I forgot to take my anti-psychotics today." It also means "I'll steal/make up names to post bullshit under." Make sense? No? It's not supposed to. I'm bored and this is how I amuse myself at everyone else's expense. Cheers!
Can someone pls translate this:
Americans are mostly fat and stupid now and tolerate openly gay priests raping younger makes too,
Sure. Glad to be of assistance.
It means 100% of Americans are fat in your world.
It means 100% of boys were raped by 100% of priests in your world.
Truthfulness of what you think: 0%.
Isn't it amazing how Sarah Palin always has a new "book" to peddle just in time for the Xmas shopping season? Isn't it amazing how the redneck chumps have no problem plunking down $12 or $15 or $20 or more for this trash? Isn't it amazing how Sarah Palin makes fools out of these low I.Q. trailer park losers while dancing her way to the bank? Isn't it amazing that she doesn't even write that garbage herself but implies that she does?
Beginning of Gandhi's letter to Hitler.
"Namaste, My Fuhrer. I implore you to propagate the Aryan race and remove all semitic impediments in this endeavor. We look forward towards your wisdom and guidance with respect to dealing with British and exterminating Jews. I continue to expound on my hobby of banging my goat and niece Manu. Of course not to mention other tender aged boys and girls and my cow ... Lakshmi. Your Obedient Servant , Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi."
Up yours. Troll mother fukkers.
Eat dirt.
Eat Modi poop
Modi eats mulla poop. S ukks mulla lulla. Lol
Modi eats mulla poop. S ukks mulla lulla. Lol
Kashmir has no problem. For it belongs to India.
U bich troll. Asss. hole bich.
Long live Modi!
Long live India!
Blue troll. Fu ck u and eat sh it. Bich
Mother fukker
Modi f ukks ducks and donkeys. He has no lulla
Goat fukker..
Modi is a mother f ukker donkey d ikk sukker. Get it? Oh yes you do.
Then again I am a slum dog from Bombay, India. Raipe and maime is our culture. We are the hindoos. Mother f ukkers. We eat moslem s hit.
Hey. Fukk u troll. U are not son of sam. u bich paki mother fukker.
Now go fukk your mother asss..hole
@1:59 goat fukker!
God bless Modi.
Modi is a good man like Ghandi.
Long live India.
America and India are allies.
So fukk u goat fukker paki bich dikk sukker mother fu cker..
Yeah, yeah. Whatever.
What India has over Israel is that Modi is licensed by the world to have his finger on the button of a nuclear bomb. Netanyahoo/Israel are not so trusted,
Modi has his hand on the d ikk of a mulla. Call it a nuclear lulla.
I mean what do you expect from the blog of a plagiarist third world slumdog? Hindoo trash from India.
Let me prevail on this "waterboarding techniques" debate.
Why waste precious resources on conventional techniques to rehydrate/dehydrate hindoo a zz in India.
Let us take Lord Ganesh's trunk. Marinate it with extra hot chili. Use this to reydrate hindoos rectally. That would take care of the issue.
What do you get if you waterboard the average American adult?
Whatever you want. Including keys to cabinets and refrigerators parents use to keep their own kids from eating. And confessions of wife-swapping and acknowledgments of illegal abortions.
No shat. Duh.
Philip. U ignorant asss.
India is the well of global terror. The inspiration of all evil in that society emanates from hinddoou philosophy that is evil, medieval and dark vide Rig-Veda and Gita Bhagavad the SOPs of terrorism.
Drake. U are a goat fu cker.
Now go su ck rupert's big long di ck. U bich
Actually I am your mother's fukker.
Lol. What do you get if you fry the average US adult? 30 lbs. of lard.
Blue troll and Philip. U are both fascinating ass'..
Bunch of goat fu ckers.....


text:
Greg Zyla: First front-wheel-drive car?
Q: Hi, Greg, and thanks for helping me with this question. Who marketed the first front-wheel drive car, either foreign or domestic? Thanks much, Larry F., old-timer from New England.
A: Larry, the first consumer-available front-wheel drive, mass-marketed car came from the DKW F1 from Germany in 1931. Other German car producers, of which there were many back then, followed, as Stoewer later in 1931 offered a front drive. In 1932, the Adler car company released a front drive, followed by Audi in 1933. To this day, Audi and its Quattro all-wheel-drive is the most respected, be it front drive or all-wheel drive. In 1934, French manufacturer Citroen joined the fray.
The first American manufacturer with front drive is a toss-up between Ruxton and Cord, both who tried in 1929 but never sold enough cars to be labeled as mass-produced. BSA, the motorcycle name from overseas, sold a three-wheeled front-drive machine in 1929 with success, but we can't include any "less than four wheel" vehicles on this list.
Personally, I remember the Simca cars in 1960 as front-wheel drive, although I'm sure many other foreign makes also sold FWD cars. I know the Saab "bumble bees" were front drive (emitting that special sound from their little engines), and the Austin Mini Coopers, too, the latter which were great in road racing classes.
As for the domestic big three and not counting the Cord 810, which had the transmission and engine installed backward in 1938, resulting in front drive worthiness, modern-day front-drive cars first appeared on those 1966 Olds Toronados, and then subsequent Buick Rivieras and Cadillac Eldorados. These were well before the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni of 1978, followed by Chevy's Citation, which came about in 1980. After 1980, many manufacturers introduced front-drive vehicles and minivans. I had the opportunity to drive a '66 Toronado thanks to my date to the prom's family that year!
As for me, I'm still a fan of rear-wheel drive. I'll admit that front drive is better in the snow, hands down, but for normal weather driving, a rear drive delivers the best in handling and weight transfer, far and above a front-drive design. That's why most all of the world's great motorcars use rear-drive platforms.
Thanks for your letter, and I hope this answer helps.
Greg Zyla writes weekly for GateHouse Media and welcomes reader interaction on collector cars, auto nostalgia or old-time motorsports at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, PA 18840 or at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Mother of boy held in bunker forgives captor
The mother of an Alabama boy held for days in an underground bunker said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that she forgave her son's captor early in the standoff and asked authorities not to harm him.
Jennifer Kirkland's son, Ethan Gilman, was a captive for six days in rural Midland City, Ala., before FBI agents entered the bunker and killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes.
Dykes "took care of Ethan to the best of his abilities" by cooking chicken for the boy and asking hostage negotiators to bring the child his favorite toy car, his mother told Dr. Phil McGraw in an interview for the "Dr. Phil Show."
"From the very beginning I had already forgiven Mr. Dykes, even though he still had my child," Kirkland said. "...I asked that he not be hurt. But if it came down to it, you know, of course I want my child safe."
Authorities returned Ethan unharmed after a gunbattle in which Dykes, according to a coroner, was shot multiple times. Kirkland said her son, who turned 6 just two days after the rescue, told her that he witnessed the shooting.
Members of the rescue team used stun grenades to disorient Dykes, who had a gun and had become agitated with negotiators, before rushing into the bunker, she said.
"They went in and covered Ethan with a vest and they shot Mr. Dykes," Kirkland said.
Ethan saw the agents kill his captor, his mother said, just as days earlier he had witnessed Dykes storm onto his school bus and fatally shoot the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr.
Poland and Ethan had become close, Kirkland said, as the driver had helped the boy work up the courage to get off the bus by himself.
"Ethan has always been scared of coming down the bus steps," Kirkland said. "And Mr. Poland would always cheer him on, you know, 'Come on, little buddy, you can do it.'"
Ethan typically sat right behind Poland on the school bus, where the driver could keep an eye on him, Kirkland said.
That's where the boy was sitting the day police say Dykes came aboard the bus armed with a gun and demanding two hostages. Authorities say Poland was shot trying to stand between Dykes and the children.
"The reason I think Ethan was taken off the bus is because when he saw Mr. Poland shot, Ethan passed out," Kirkland said. "Mr. Dykes went down to catch him and he picked him up. And I think, in his own way, he was trying to care for him."
After the shooting, authorities say, Dykes fled to the bunker with the child as the standoff opened.


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Arrow Scoop: Will Felicity Smoak Join the Scooby Gang Full Time?
Oliver Queen's big secret is just a little less secret these days.
Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), Queen Consolidated's go-to IT gal, has joined the ranks of those in the know that the billionaire playboy (Stephen Amell) is actually the vigilante dubbed The Hood, otherwise known as Arrow's titular character. But there's a catch: She will only help Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) with matters pertaining to locating Walter (Colin Salmon). But considering Rickards was just promoted to series regular, it looks like she'll be joining the Scooby Gang full-time. How will that affect her relationship with Oliver? TVGuide.com turned to Rickards to get the scoop:
The CW renews Arrow, The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural
Congratulations on being promoted to series regular! How excited were you when you found out?
Emily Bett Rickards: Oh my gosh, I was beside myself. I was really flattered. We're all excited to get a second season.
Felicity has sort of joined the Scooby Gang, even though she's only doing it to help track down Walter. What will her role in the group look like now?
Rickards: It creates a certain dynamic that was different from what Olivier and Diggle had because she's the polar opposite of Diggle in a sense that she hasn't seen anyone die and this isn't actually her regular day job. Her role now is to help them solve different crimes in Starling City as well as creating a different balance to the group that the audience, and Olivier and Diggle, will enjoy as well. She's got that awkward, quirky spunk. As much as she's socially inadequate, she's always so gung-ho to hack into something. She's really smart. I find her emotional depth and her emotional capacity interesting because she's so socially awkward.
Will we get to see her in the field since her forte is more about working with computers?
Rickards: We do see a little bit of that in Wednesday's episode. She does get into a little bit of trouble coming along with Diggle and Oliver to the scene of the crime, if you will. But she does stay in the Foundry with the computers and helps him that way as well. We'll get a little taste of it and hopefully a little more in the future too.
She set boundaries in saying she's only helping when it comes to Walter, but will we see those lines begin to blur?
Rickards: Her lines won't necessarily blur, but they start to shift. They start to change over the course of getting deeper and deeper into it. As soon as you witness some of the seedy things happening, you can't un-witness them. There's an innocence that's lost. She's doing this to find Walter. She has strict morals. She doesn't want to see good people get hurt and die. She starts to have more respect for what they're doing because they're trying to protect the city. [But] there's the question always in her mind: Who am I becoming? Should we be giving these people a chance to redeem themselves?
Arrow star Stephen Amell: "Everybody on the show is misunderstood"
What can you tease about the obstacles they'll face when it comes to hunting Walter down?
Rickards: There are no clues; there are no hints. I think she hopes that going through the list and helping Oliver and Diggle that something will pop up. She feels like it's all connected and as the episodes go on, you start to see how much things are connected. Even though her role expands and she stays in it to help Starling City as well, she's just hoping that a clue will pop up and it'll show where he is. But there's nothing yet.
Not sure if you've seen the Internet chatter, but everyone has been talking about the chemistry between Felicity and Oliver.
Rickards: Yes,Olicity, I think it is. [Laughs]
How will their relationship change now?
Rickards: It's hard to say if there's going to be a love interest/crush/relationship, but the relationship definitely starts to change. Oliver has a lot of walls, but with the biggest wall down and that secret out there - even though he still has secrets from everyone - it allows Felicity to see Oliver more clearly. Now they can be a little bit more open with each other and that's bound to change something in their relationship.
How will she feel about The Huntress (Jessica de Gouw) coming back into the picture since that means Felicity isn't the only woman in Oliver's life who knows his secret?
Rickards: How the Huntress comes back is a really fun and interesting episode. It's very action-packed. It was such a fun episode to shoot. I think Felicity is questioning her. She doesn't really understand who The Huntress is or where she came from. How does she know and I didn't know about her?! There's also the underlying fear because The Huntress is very intimidating.
Arrow Scoop: Will Oliver be able to take down The Count?
Will we get to learn more about Felicity's background?
Rickards: We don't get to see too much about her background yet. We do get to see a vulnerable side to her when she starts getting deeper into these activities with Oliver and Diggle. She is a brilliant, but normal woman who is quite shocked by what she's seeing and still doesn't know whether it's right or wrong. Hopefully we'll get to learn more about Felicity soon. We do have Season 2!
Are you excited to see more of Felicity?
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
View original Arrow Scoop: Will Felicity Smoak Join the Scooby Gang Full Time? at TVGuide.com
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
- Arrow Scoop: Will Oliver be able to take down The Count?
- Arrow star Stephen Amell: "Everybody on the show is misunderstood"
- The CW renews Arrow, The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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'Not to be published' Diana photo sells for $18K
Staff Writer
Columbus Monthly
AMHERST, N.H. (AP) — A photo marked "not to be published" that shows a teenage Diana Spencer before she became Princess of Wales has been sold by a New Hampshire auction house for more than $18,000.
The photograph shows a group of friends relaxing during a ski trip, with Diana reclining on a bed, with a young man seated behind her and a bottle of whiskey on the window sill. It was acquired by a British newspaper just after her engagement Prince Charles, but someone at the paper wrote "not to be published" across it, presumably because it would've embarrassed the royal family.
RR Auction in Amherst, N.H., says the photo sold in the online auction Thursday to a real estate investor from San Diego for $18,306, well above early estimates.


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Spurs cramp Heat's style
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs handled the Heat, and the heat, during a sweltering start to the NBA Finals.
Tim Duncan had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the Spurs beat Miami 110-95 on Thursday night in Game 1 inside a steamy AT&T Center.
With an air conditioning failure making it feel like basketball in a sauna and causing LeBron James to battle cramps that knocked him out of the game's decisive stretch, the Spurs pulled away to win the opener of the first finals rematch since 1998.
Manu Ginobili had 16 points and 11 assists, and Tony Parker added 19 points and eight assists for the Spurs, who shot 59 percent and improved to 6 for 6 in NBA Finals Game 1s.
They host Game 2 on Sunday — likely in cooler conditions.
James finished with 25 points but played only 33 minutes, and Miami was outscored 36-17 in the fourth quarter.
Dwyane Wade scored 19 points and Chris Bosh had 18 for the Heat, who wilted in temperatures that soared to 90 degrees in the second half.
"It was tough on both teams," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They were pretty dead. We tried to get guys in and out. ... It was really hot out there."
James, who had cramping issues two years ago in the finals, had to ask for a break in the fourth quarter and was getting treatment during a 15-4 Spurs run that turned around the game.
"It felt like a punch in the gut when you see your leader limping to bench like that. But we still had a chance after that," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
James came back in and made a basket that cut it to two points with about 4 minutes left, but couldn't even run back on defense, promptly putting his hand up and lingering at the baseline until help arrived to take him off for good.
Danny Green followed with 3-pointer to trigger what became a 16-3 run to end the game.
"You could see the heat was getting to a lot of guys. If I played as many minutes as he did, I'd probably be cramping up, too," said Green, who scored 11 of his 13 points in the final quarter.
The crowd chanted "Beat the Heat! Beat the Heat!" late in the game, which was just what the fans themselves were trying to do.
The Spurs said an electrical failure for the power that runs the air conditioning system had occurred. They apologized for the inconvenience but also seemed to poke fun of it, playing songs with "hot" in the lyrics over the sound system.
Fans were trying to cool themselves on the hot night, a reminder of what it was like in the old Boston Garden when the Celtics and Lakers got together.
The Heat are the first team since those Celtics of 1984-87 to get to four straight finals. They are well-rested after a relatively easy roll through the Eastern Conference playoffs, a key to keeping Wade healthy entering the finals.
James was the MVP of the series last year when the Heat rallied from five points down in the final half-minute of regulation to win Game 6 in overtime, then won a Game 7 that was close the whole way for their second straight championship.
A rematch was widely anticipated and was close almost throughout. The Heat led 86-79 after Bosh's four-point play with 9:38 remaining in the game, but it was all San Antonio from there.
The Spurs ended up extending their NBA-record straight to eight straight home playoff wins by 15 or more points.
Bosh, scoreless in Game 7 last year, scored Miami's first five points in the Heat's 7-2 start. But Ginobili came off the bench firing, making consecutive 3-pointers for an 18-13 lead.
Wade and James combined for six straight points before Ginobili made another 3, and Patty Mills added one to close the first-quarter scoring and give the Spurs a 26-20 advantage.
The Spurs committed nine turnovers while managing only 20 points in the third quarter, and Miami led 78-74 heading to the fourth.


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Article from Daily Tech written by Wolfgang Hansson
Havok Causes Havoc in GPU Physics
AMD says GPU physics is dead until DirectX 11
PC gamers have been looking for more than just pretty graphics when it comes to their game titles over the last few years. Not only do gamers want realistic graphics, but they want realistic physics as well.
Physics have long been a part of PC and console games to some extent. As games get more complex the mathematical calculations required for accurately rendering things on screen like smoke and explosions gets more complex as well.
GPU makers ATI and NVIDIA both know the value of physics processing and both companies put forth similar ways to tackle physics for video games. DailyTech reported in January of 2007 leaked specifications from ATI showing exactly what would be required for its asymmetric physics processing. Almost a year before those documents were leaked, DailyTech reported on NVIDIA's Quantum physics engine.
Things in the world of video game physics heated up when Intel announced in September that it intended to buy Havok, the company whose physics software is widely used by game developers around the world. Xbit Labs reports today that AMD's Developer Relations Chief, Richard Huddy is saying that GPU physics is dead for now.
The reason Huddy is saying GPU physics is dead is that Havok, now owned by Intel, is said to be releasing its Havok FX physics effects engine that is responsible for computing GPU physics without support. That is assuming Havok doesn't abandon the Havok FX engine at all. DirectX 11 is projected to support physics on the GPU and it may be the release of DirectX 11 before we see GPU physics processing. This should be great new to the ears of AGEIA, who recently announced it would be developing a mobile physics processor.
Exactly how this will affect mainboards that NVIDIA already has in development remains to be seen; the replacement to the NVIDIA 680i mainboard is said to have three PCIe slots. If one of those slots was slated for use in GPU physics is unknown, however, this could be why the 680i replacement was pushed from a launch date of mid-November as was rumored to have been the scheduled launch date.